Adoption of town's 'Place Plan' could be in June

Adopting Newtown’s Place Plan as Supplementary Planning Guidance will go in front of Powys County Council’s cabinet in June for a decision.

At a meeting of the Local Development Plan working group, councillors were told that the consultation, which ran for a six week period up to March 9, had received a good response.

Planning policy officer, Tanya Dearing, said: “It all seemed to go smoothly and we had 17 responses back.

“They are primarily local issues such as an opinion on which street should or shouldn’t be pedestrianised, what might be aspirations for Newtown and where best to develop if you were going down a cafe culture route.”

Suggestion had also been made on where “vital land” for employment opportunities could be found for the future.

Ms Dearing said: “There’s quite a lot of feedback to look at the town for future generations.”

“From our perspective we would look at land allocation sites as part of LDP Two.”

A new LDP is needed by March 2026 when the current one runs out.

“We would sift through those as part of that process,” added Ms Dearing.

County Councillor for Newtown Central, Cllr David Selby, is also the town’s mayor.

Cllr Selby said: “What I was pleased about is that the representations were genuinely very positive and were adding rather than criticising.

“That shows people there is a plan there that people can work around.

“It’s very pleasing to see that all the bodies that had a chance to reply have done so and it’s generally very supportive.”

Cllr David Evans, said: “I’ve read through the report and if the Newtown members are happy then so am I.”

Cllr Michael J Jones added that it was a “perfectly sensible idea”.

Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn Town Council started the process of producing its own planning guidance in January 2019.

The document is aligned to the Powys LDP.

When adopted it is expected it will help inform development in the town up to 2036.

It is also seen as a good model for other towns in the county to follow.

The place plan is broken down into three main areas:

Newtown – a great place to live, learn and work.

This looks at what development has been happening recently, and suggests making more of the town’s historic buildings.

Feedback suggests the town needs more “quality affordable homes” for younger people, as well a having sheltered accommodation for older people closer to the town centre.

Green Newtown

This section looks at Newtown’s environment and green spaces.

A key policy would be that development that could result in the “loss or affect the use of public open space” would not be supported.

Destination Newtown

This is about trying to make Newtown attractive to visitors.

Tourism is increasingly rivalling agriculture in its economic importance across Powys.

One of the ideas the place plan has is to encourage more visitors into the town is to “develop and promote” an all year round calendar of activities.

 

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service